A Land Connected with Deity



I absolutely love learning from the various beliefs in India!  Although I am strongly rooted in my beliefs of the gospel of Jesus Christ (as taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), I have found that I can be inspired and uplifted by connecting with those of other faiths.  For example, there are a few people I work closely with on campus at RSOI who are of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, and I dare say that they are way better at keeping God in their daily thoughts than I am!  Everything they do is clearly devoted to Him, and they speak of everything being a blessing from God.  It's beautiful.  And of course, as many of you know, Hinduism is the largest religion found in India.  Again, I am inspired by how many symbols there are in the life of a devoted Hindu that direct their thoughts and actions to remembering and worshiping their chosen deity.

Now, because the internet was down all night last night and most of today, I will be keeping my words fairly short so that I can get to posting about my day today!!  This post is devoted to my Sabbath yesterday.  Before attending church, I joined the RSO volunteers as they visited a Hindu temple as well as the cathedral of St. Thomas-- a basilica devoted to one of Christ's apostles.  St. Thomas' mission brought him to India, and it was here that he was martyred.  His cathedral is built over the place where he was buried.  It was a meaningful experience for me to be where one of the original apostles is buried and to consider the life he led-- the fact that he walked with Christ... he ministered with Christ... he was physically ordained of Christ...

So I hope you appreciated these few photos of the Hindu temple and St. Thomas' Cathedral (both located in Chennai) !


The Hindu Temple






These figures are hung in a special tree at the Hindu temple by couples who are having troubles conceiving.  Once they are able to conceive, they return and retrieve the figure they hung.






Susie and Me:  Our first picture together!



St. Thomas Cathedral




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